George Wuerthner
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High-severity blazes are critical to healthy forest ecosystems. Photo George Wuerthner I read yet another study circulated by UC Davis and doggedly promoted by the national media, encouraging more prescribed burning, thinning, and forest manipulation to reduce large high-severity blazes characterized as “bad.” The headline from UC Davis proclaims that scientists have documented, “Unprecedented…
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ABSTRACT: Livestock production occurs in all deserts (except polar deserts). In many desert areas, it is the single most significant human impact. Livestock production includes grazing plants and all associated activities to produce domestic animals. This consists of the dewatering rivers for irrigated forage crops, killing of predators and “pest” species, forage competition between native…
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Air view of Pedro Bay area on Illiamna Lake, Alaska. Photo George Wuerthner In December, the Pedro Bay Native Corporation (PBC) in Alaska placed 44,000 acres of its property under a $20 million conservation easement that may be the nail in the coffin for the proposed Pebble Gold and Copper Mine in Bristol Bay. The…
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When Deb Haaland was nominated for the position of Secretary of Interior, I received dozens of emails from nearly every large conservation organization to support her nomination. She was appointed without having any particular experience or background in public lands issues and limited executive experience in running major federal land management agencies such as…
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Changes in the riparian vegetation along the San Pedro River before and after livestock removal from the main river corridor. The Bureau of Land Management released its Environmental Assessment for livestock grazing in the San Pedro National Conservation Area (SPNCA) in Arizona. The BLM has decided that the rancher’s interests trump the public interest in…
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The Dixie Fire charred 900,000 acre plus acres in 2021. The fire burned through numerous portions of the forest that had been thinned or even clearcut as seen in this photo. Photo George Wuerthner A December 20th article in the New York Times declared California had a quiet fire season. The report explained why…
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Cattle grazing is the greatest threat to the Greater Gila Ecosystem in New Mexico. Photo George Wuerthner Livestock grazing is the biggest scourge to Southwestern ecosystems. No matter where they are found, domestic livestock poses a significant threat to wildlife and ecosystem function. Feral livestock currently roams the 558,065 Gila Wilderness, and the Gila National…
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Old growth forests of Oregon store some of the greatest amounts of carbon in the United States. Photo George Wuerthner A new study, Strategic reserves in Oregon’s forests for biodiversity, water, and carbon to mitigate and adapt to climate change, reported in Frontiers in Forests and Global Climate Change, proposes setting aside a strategic forest…